Writing Tips

6 - Quotation and Punctuation Marks

Quotation marks are my pet peeve yo

When I see the correct usage in a book I'm like "wOAHOOOO THIS BOOK IS GONNA HAVE GOOD GRAMMAR, GOOD TIME, GOOD CHARACTERS, goO d"

I have this whole lesson thing?? It's long but maybe it's worth it?

ALSO, SIDE NOTE (yeah I just used bold but that's cuz this is an informal book- same with that hyphen lmao) I AM GOING ACCORDING TO MOST OF NORTH AMERICA'S GRAMMAR

I know some people have wayyyy different grammar even when writing in English which highkey baffles me but it's really cool at the same time??

So yeah if you WANT to write with a North American grammar style (most likely more Canadian-ized because I am the canadien) then read onnnnn

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In proper grammar, after a character speaks, there is generally a comma if it is followed by "he/she/they/it said, called, stated, sobbed, grumbled, screamed" and many many more (applies to all words that are synonyms for the word "said").

This in turn makes the word "he/she/they/it" have a non-capitalized letter, because in reality the phrase has not finished yet.

(I will bold all the important parts in the next examples that make it right/wrong)

Example: "Baekhyun's staring at Chanyeol's peanut," he mentioned. ✓

Example: "Baekhyun's staring at Chanyeol's peanut." he mentioned. ☓

Example: "Baekhyun's staring at Chanyeol's peanut," He mentioned. ☓

Make a little sense?

Now if that said character is performing an action that is NOT a synonym of "said", it would look a little like this:

Example: "You're stupid." He threw his bag on the ground and left. ✓

("threw" is not a synonym for "said" and is simply the next action that he is performing. Thus the phrase has actually ended so "he" is capitalized and a period is present)

Of course proper names will stay capitalized, because you never make proper names non-capitalized. (So if you use "Chanyeol said" then his name stays the same but the comma must be there)

If the phrase is an exclamation or a question, use the same rules except commas are not needed, instead replaced by "?" or "!"

Example: "You want me to bottom? Me? A full daddy?" he asked. ✓

It's hella confusing if you're new to it but you eventually do get used to it and it's like second natureeee

Again, some people live in places where the comma may go after the quotation mark or there is simply no comma or punctuation mark!! If you think so, pls search it up online and mention in the comments what's different about your country's grammar :))

If you have questions or anything that you want clarified then don't hesitate to comment! Also, if you have things you're interested in but are too lazy to search, ask me to explain and I'll make a chapter on it c:

ur -10 writer is oot.